"In the first two years, I expect [next-generation dev] costs to remain the same."

--Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in an interview at E3.

During a pre-E3 press event in Los Angeles on Sunday, Guillemot explained how he saw development costs increasing for the upcoming generation of consoles. Later, he said that the current console climate necessitated higher marketing spending as well, because certain consumer segments were "harder to reach" than they were in the beginning of the console cycle, requiring more TV advertising buys.

"In the first two years, I expect [next-generation dev] costs to remain the same," Guillemot explained, "because we will have the advantage of having better machines, so won't have to compress as much data.

"But, quickly, in two years, we'll have to spend more money to take advantage of all the possibilities these machines are bringing, and it can grow quite fast. But I think what's interesting is that we'll be able to create data that we will be able to reuse in other places, because we're getting closer and closer to what you can see in movies and TV series now."

Developers: What do you think? Do Guillemot's predictions match your own estimations for next-gen dev costs? Do you think you'll be able to take advantage of reusable tech and assets more than you could with the current generation? Let us know in the comments!